100 YEARS AGO
Sensational Newspaper Reports as to Physiological Action of Common Salt.
In the interest of the dignity of scientific research I venture to hope you will print the following statement. Some American papers have recently published sensational and absurd reports of physiological theories and experiments whose authorship they attributed to me. These reports, which in America nobody takes seriously, were reprinted and discussed in European papers. I hardly need to state that I am in no way responsible for the journalistic idiosyncrasies of newspaper reporters and that for the publication of my experiments or views I choose scientific journals and not the daily Press. Jacques Loeb
From Nature i4 February 1901.
50 YEARS AGO
A recent address on "Freedom in Science" broadcast by Prof. C. A. Coulson made even clearer the need for ensuring that our instruments of government make proper provision for such freedom. Prof. Coulson observed that, since patience, humility, tolerance, fairmindedness, integrity, co-operation and trust are the hallmarks of the scientific tradition, he has been forced to the conclusion that this tradition is ultimately based on, and derives its final sanction from, moral and ethical considerations which lie outside the field of what is popularly called science. A. N. Whitehead maintained that the inner conviction that the world is rational, and the confidence in one another that enables us to dispense with the verification of other people's claims, is a legacy coming to us from "the medieval insistence on the rationality of God". Prof. Coulson accordingly suggests that in a time of crisis like the present, which is marked by the breakdown of personal conviction among ordinary people, it is highly important that. . . men of science are the custodians of many of the most precious values of our civilization. From this aspect, Prof. Coulson agrees with Prof. Polanyi's view that the suppositions underlying our belief in science "co-extend with the entire spiritual foundations of man, and go to the very root of his social existence". But he discusses a possible danger to the freedom of science which might well arise from intoxication with power and an unmeasured faith in organization. This will have to be guarded against when the Science Centre in London now under consideration is established.
From Nature 17 February 1951.
